VCCBH News

  • Hearts and Minds: Symposium to Spotlight Cardiovascular-Brain Research
    The Vermont Center for Cardiovascular and Brain Health supports research by early-career scientists who are investigating the mysteries of the heart-brain connection. The researchers are sharing their findings at a symposium on June 15-16 at UVM’s Davis Center.
  • Cushman, Higgins, Stein, and Heil Recognized with UVM Faculty Awards
    The University of Vermont (UVM) recently recognized Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., Stephen Higgins, Ph.D., and Gary Stein, Ph.D., as University Distinguished Professors, and Sarah Heil, Ph.D., was named a 2023-24 University Scholar.
  • Looking at the Future of Cardiovascular Health through the Lens of Early-Career Investigators
    The University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine features some of the world’s foremost cardiovascular researchers, experts in cardiovascular disease risk factors, thrombosis, atherosclerosis, stroke, and heart failure. the science shared by early-career investigators at the Cardiovascular Research Institute of Vermont’s fourth annual Viridis Montis Challenge, it was apparent that the institution’s reputation and legacy in the field of cardiovascular research will continue to have a global impact.
  • Cushman and Colleagues Find Social Disparities in Treatments and Outcomes for Pulmonary Embolism
    Racial minorities and people with lower incomes or who are insured by Medicare or Medicaid are significantly less likely to receive the most advanced therapies and more likely to die after suffering a pulmonary embolism, according to a new analysis conducted by University of Vermont Professor of Medicine Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., and colleagues.
  • 2022 Pilot Grant Award Recipients
    These awards, supported wholly by funds from UVM entities, provide $200,000 over 2 years to fund meritorious research from early career faculty. We are very grateful to Deans from the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences, Arts & Sciences, Engineering & Mathematical Sciences, and the Graduate College, as well as the Cardiovascular Research Institute of Vermont, for their support of this program. In addition, we would like to acknowledge matching fund support from the Departments of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics and Medicine.
  • Celebrating Larner’s Newest Facility: The Firestone Medical Research Building
    On October 27, 2022, the UVM Larner College of Medicine held a grand opening and dedication of the newest addition to the medical campus: the Firestone Medical Research Building.
  • VCCBH Symposium Highlights Early Career Investigators, Innovative Multidisciplinary Research
    More than 100 in-person and dozens of virtual participants attended the second annual Vermont Center for Cardiovascular and Brain Health (VCCBH) Symposium, held at the University of Vermont’s Davis Center June 2 to 3, 2022. The VCCBH, one of three National Institutes of Health Center of Biomedical Research Excellence-funded programs at UVM, is co-directed by Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., professor and vice chair for emerging researchers in the Department of Medicine, and Mark Nelson, Ph.D., University Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology.
  • UVM Hosts Second Symposium for Heart and Brain Health
    The Vermont Center for Cardiovascular and Brain Health's annual symposium was featured in a news story on ABC22 and Fox44. on June 1.
    Read full story at mychamplainvalley.com
  • VCCBH Symposium Presenters Interviewed for Local ABC22/Fox44 Story
    (JUNE 2, 2022) Assistant Professor of Rehabilitation and Movement Science Denise Peters, PT, D.P.T., Ph.D., was among those interviewed for a segment on the second annual VCCBH symposium that aired on Local ABC22/Fox44.
  • Johnson Awarded R01 NIH Grant
    Congratulations to Abbie Chapman Johnson, Ph.D., for receiving her first R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and the NIH National Institute on Aging.
  • Congratulations to Dr. Tim Plante
    I’m pleased to tell you that our own Dr. Tim Plante received the Sandra Daugherty Award for Excellence in Hypertension or Epidemiology at the AHA Epidemiology/Lifestyle conference in Chicago yesterday! His abstract was presented as an oral presentation today and was based on his research funded by the CVRI Bloomfield Professorship, “Inflammatory cytokines and incident hypertension in the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study.”
  • Pipeline Investigator Receives Two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant
    Debora Kamin Mukaz, Ph.D., postdoctoral associate in medicine and a researcher in the Laboratory for Clinical Biochemistry Research, has received a two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant from the American Heart Association. The grant will support her research in the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) national longitudinal cohort study, which has followed 30,239 Black and white adults since 2003 in an effort to determine why Black Americans and those living in the Southeast have higher stroke mortality.
  • Emmett Whitaker, M.D. Receives Mentored Research Training Grant
    Congratulations to Dr. Emmett Whitaker for being awarded a 2021 Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research Mentored Research Training Grant (MRTG).
  • Pilot Grant Award Recipients 2021
    It is with great pleasure that we announce the recipients of our inaugural Vermont Center for Cardiovascular and Brain Health Pilot Grant Award, Drs Yangguang Ou and David Punihaole.
  • Hearts & Brains: UVM’s Newest COBRE Hits Its Stride at One-Year Anniversary
    Not only is Vermont small and rural, but it’s also old. Currently, the state is ranked fourth in the nation for the relative number of residents over 65 years old – a whopping nearly 20 percent of Vermont’s population and rising. And with that status comes a disproportionately large share of heart disease, as well as blood vessel diseases and brain circulation problems that can lead to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
  • Research Team Uncovers Unexplored Universe of Calcium Signals in the Brain
    UVM and University of Maryland researchers have shown how the brain communicates to blood vessels when in need of energy, and how these blood vessels respond to direct blood flow to specific brain regions -- information that can help determine what goes wrong in conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, where faulty blood flow is a predictor for cognitive impairment.
  • Cushman & Colleagues' Study Shows Benefits of Early Anticlotting Therapy in Moderate COVID-19
    New trial results from the University of Vermont and an international team of researchers show that administering a full dose of a standard blood thinner early to moderately ill hospitalized patients with COVID-19 could reduce the risk of severe disease and death.
  • Cushman Discusses VCCBH on Local 22's "What Matters This Week"
    (JUNE 14, 2021) UVM Professor of Medicine Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., co-principal investigator for the Vermont Center on Cardiovascular and Brain Health, was interviewed by anchor Lauren Maloney on Vermont's Local 22 ABC affiliate's "What Matters This Week" program.
  • TGIR Research Slam Highlights Progress One Year into Pandemic
    On March 18, 2021, researchers from across UVM came together via Zoom for the second edition of the Translational Global Infectious Diseases Research Center's COVID-19 research slam, titled “UVM Tackles COVID-19: Research Progress and Perspectives One Year into the Pandemic.”
  • Wilcock & Harvard Colleagues’ Study Shows Telestroke Improves Outcomes
    A new study shows that individuals who receive stroke care at facilities that offer consults via stroke telemedicine, known as telestroke, fare better than patients who get stroke care at places without such services, according to researchers from the University of Vermont and the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School.